The Sudanese kinship system is the most complicated of all kinship systems. It maintains a separate designation for almost each one of Ego's kin, based on their distance from Ego, their relation, and their gender. Ego's Father is distinguished from Ego's father's brother and from Ego's mother's brother. Ego's Mother is similarly distinguished from Ego's mother's sister and from Ego's father's sister. For cousins, there are eight possible terms.

The system is named for the peoples of South Sudan, Africa. The Sudanese kinship system also existed in ancient Latin-speaking [1] and Anglo-Saxon [2] cultures. It exists today among present day-Arab and Turkish [3] cultures. It tends to co-occur with patrilineal descent, and it is often said to be common in complex and stratified cultures.[4]

On the opposite side, Chinese system often makes a distinction between older and younger sibling of the parent (it is impossible to just say e.g. "father's brother" unless with circumlocution, it is either "father's older brother" or "father's younger brother"), as well as of the subject. This applies to both uncles and aunts, both patrilinear and matrilinear.